The Amateur Traveler talks to Lee from Atlanta who is currently living in Qing Dao, China about traveling independently in Beijing,China.

Lee describes getting around by bus, subway and taxi, eating street food, and biking through the Hutongs of Beijing. He guides us to lesser known sites like Beijing’s underground city and the site of the old Summer Palace.

He leads us to the great wall at Badaling, Mutianyu, and Simatai. Lee also talks about side trips to see the Buddhas in the Yungang Caves near Datong and the nearby hanging monasteries and to see the Qing royal villas and replica of the Lhasa temple in Chungde.

We talk about where to find a guide (and why you may not need one), Chinese history and what Lee suggested his parents should bring to China.

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2 Responses to “Independent Travel to Beijing, China – Episode 193”

Pak Tam, Montreal

1. “Beijing” is translated from the local dialect of the capital, which automatically became the official language after the fall of the empire. “Peking” is the cantonese pronunciation of the same 2 words meaning “northern capital”.

2. “The Temple of the Heaven” should be more appropriately translated into “The Altar of the Sky”. The building functioned as the private chapel for the emperor, who was actually called the Son of the Sky. There he would receive communion from and practice ritualized offering to Sky God, a rather faceless & distant deity, but chief among the Chinese pantheon.